


Training

by Persiflage



Series: The Adepts [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - World War II, Empath, Espionage, F/M, Historical Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Telepathy, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-03
Updated: 2014-02-03
Packaged: 2018-01-11 01:13:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lin and Karl, together with Mary Lenox, begin their training before they are sent behind enemy lines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Training

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tayryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tayryn/gifts), [Wolfsbride](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfsbride/gifts).



> This is the third in this series of short stories in the Adepts universe.  
> Everything here is mine! (But I still ain't making a profit!)

"Good evening, Lin, Karl. Please, come in."

William Carvill's courteous greeting and friendly smile was a pleasant change from his manner at Lin's first meeting with him. He ushered them into the hallway of his three storey town house, then took their coats.

"Thank you." Lin surrendered her coat, then waited as Carvill took Karl's and hung up both of them. 

"We're through here," Carvill said, and led the way down the black and white tiled hall, into a high-ceilinged sitting room which overlooked a large garden at the back of the house. It was dusk, so Lin couldn't see much aside from the silhouettes of some trees. 

Turning her attention back to the room, she saw a face she hadn't seen for eighteen months, as Carvill's twin sister, Mary Lenox, got to her feet and came forward to greet her brother's visitors.

"Good evening Ms Kluge, Mr Adler." She was soft-spoken and Lin detected a rush of gratitude from the young woman as they shook hands. 

"It's good to see you looking so well, Miss Lenox."

"Mary, please," she said promptly, brushing a wayward lock of her blonde hair off her face. 

"Then you must call me Lin."

"Can I offer either of you a drink?" Carvill asked, and Lin and Karl both accepted a Scotch, having acquired a taste for it on their recent trip to Scotia.

They seated themselves on a comfortable sofa, while Mary resumed her chair alongside the fireplace opposite them, and Carvill sat on the other side of the fire.

"How was your trip to Scotia?" asked Mary.

"Busy," Karl said.

"A mixture of sorrow and joy," Lin answered almost simultaneously, then cast a brief smile at her lover. "We went to see the aunt and sister of a fellow Adept who helped us to escape from a labour camp in Germania and who, sadly, didn't survive the trip to Sweonas."

"I am sorry for your loss."

"Thank you."

The sitting room door opened and a middle-aged woman spoke, "Dinner is served, Mr Carvill."

"Thank you, Mrs White." He turned to Lin. "Shall we?"

"Thank you." She set her empty glass on the side table next to the arm of the sofa, then got to her feet. She was both surprised and slightly amused when Carvill offered her his arm, but she rested her hand atop his forearm, and let him lead the way out of the sitting room and across the hall into another high-ceilinged room, which was lit by candelabras spaced down the middle of the dining table.

Carvill held her chair for her as she seated herself, before taking his own seat, and Lin saw Karl doing the same for Mary across the table. Mrs White then carried bowls of soup across from the long buffet table at the side of the room, setting one in front of Lin and a second in front of Karl before serving their hosts. Lin found herself intrigued by this old-fashioned courtesy; in Germania servants had gone out at the end of the previous century, and she wasn't aware that Carvill was an aristocrat.

Mrs White withdrew as they began their first course, and Carvill observed, "You'll have to excuse Mrs White. Her family have been serving mine for three generations, and she deems it improper for guests to serve themselves while she still has breath in her body."

Lin chuckled lightly. "Some people can be very stubborn."

"Yes." Carvill began asking how much sightseeing she and Karl had managed on their trip to Scotia, so they discussed Eidyn Burgh Castle, and Orcades Island, without mentioning why they'd visited the latter.

Mary mentioned some of the tourist sights she'd seen while in Germania, before the war had broken out, which saw them through the second course, then Carvill asked if either Lin or Karl had ever Angiloi before now.

"I have," Lin admitted. "Not as a tourist though."

"I haven't," Karl said. "My work before the war didn't give me much chance to travel, unfortunately." He glanced across at Mary. "I was a biochemist."

"It's a shame you were too busy," she said. "Perhaps you'll have a chance to travel after the war?"

"I would enjoy that," he said. "I'm sure Lin would make a very good guide, too." He gave her a warm smile, which made her smile back.

Lin tasted a momentary disappointment in Mary's mind, and realised that she hadn't previously been aware that Lin and Karl were a couple; she smiled inside at the knowledge that she wasn't the only one who found her tall, blue-eyed, blond-haired lover desirable. 

After they finished eating, Mary led them back into the sitting room where Mrs White was just setting down a silver tray holding a coffee pot and four coffee cups onto a side table.

"Thank you, Mrs White, that will be all for this evening."

"Very good, sir." She gave him a nod, then went out quietly.

"You must be wondering about the proposal I mentioned when I invited you to dine with me," Carvill said as Mary poured coffee for them all.

"Just a little," Lin said, with a smile to show she didn't mind the fact that he had put off the discussion until after dinner.

"What I propose is that the two of you join Mary on a mission to Germania, specifically a mission to assassinate the Fuehrer."

Lin felt Mary's surprise, as well as Karl's, and was intrigued by the knowledge that Carvill hadn't previously mentioned such a mission to his sister. "Your government is happy to send two Germani citizens, one of whom is known to be a former intelligence officer, back to Germania, along with one of your own intelligence officers, one who is known to have previously been captured and tortured by the Germani State Security Agency?"

"Yes." Carvill's simple affirmative masked a thread of concern, she noticed, and wondered whether to call him on it, but he forestalled her. "They're not over the moon about it, of course. There is a risk that Mary might be recognised, although we hope to circumvent that, and there is also a risk that you yourself will be recognised by former colleagues. However, we're not planning on send you in tomorrow, or even next week."

"That's a relief," Karl muttered, and Lin clasped his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Carvill acknowledged his comment. "Obviously, the fact that you have no training as an intelligence officer will also need to be addressed, Mr Adler. We are therefore tentatively planning your mission start date for three months from now, but that is by no means going to be set in stone. Mr Adler will receive a fast-track, intensive training course in both the basics and more advanced techniques of intelligence work. Ms Kluge, if you agree, will receive training from two colleagues of mine, who are both telepaths and telempathic like yourself – they teach an advance course in telepathy which I believe you will find very useful for your mission. And all three of you will receive parachute training."

Lin's eyes widened. "Parachute training?"

Carvill nodded. "Yes. We intend to parachute you in by night rather than sending you in by rail as Mary has gone in previously." He smiled faintly at their collective astonishment. "We would also like Mr Adler and Mary to work together – Mary's skilled in telekinesis and pyrokinesis, and since you're skilled in teleportation, Mr Adler, we'd like the two of you to able to do as you and Henning Eklund did in Germania, but on a larger scale if possible."

Karl acknowledged him, and Lin sensed he was interested in the idea.

"Obviously I'm not asking you to give me an answer tonight," Carvill continued. "But I would appreciate it you could let me know by the end of the week, whether or nor you're on board." He slipped a hand into his inside jacket pocket, and took out a business card. "The number for my private line is on here. Please telephone me once you've made your decision."

"Very well." Lin took his card and slipped it into her shoulder bag. She glanced across at Mary and saw that her eyes were bright; she sensed the other woman's eagerness to carry out Carvill's proposed mission, and wondered if she was the only one of the three of them who had the slightest reservations about the idea.

"Now, it's getting late, and I still have some paperwork to do, so I hope you will permit me to excuse myself." 

"Of course," Lin said, Karl echoing her. 

Carvill got to his feet, gave them a rather formal bow, then went out. 

"Well!" Mary said once her brother had gone. "That was a facer and no mistake."

"A facer?" asked Karl, puzzled. 

"A surprise," Mary explained. "Comparable to the surprise you'd feel if someone punched you in the face."

"You had no inkling this was in the wind?" Lin asked her.

"None. I didn't think Will was even going to let me go back to Germania again. My most recent mission was in Rossiya – Will thinks the Germani and the Rossiyans are going to form a joint alliance, especially now that Sweonas, Angiloi, and Scotia have all abandoned their neutrality to join forces with the Gauls."

"That makes sense," Lin agreed. "Even though Hiedler and Josef Staling hate each other, their politics are similar enough to make them allies." She put a hand to her mouth to hide a yawn. "Sorry."

Mary shook her head. "I'm the one who should be sorry," she said. "You must be tired after your trip from Eidyn Burgh. I should let you get back to your hotel. Would you like me to ring for a taxi?"

Lin smiled. "No, thank you. We'll walk back."

Mary got to her feet. "Let me see you out."

"Thank you." Lin accepted Karl's assistance to get up from the sofa, and followed them both out into the hallway. Karl helped her to put on her coat, before shrugging into his own.

"Goodnight, and thank you for a lovely meal," Lin said.

"Thank you for coming. And thank you, also, for saving my life back in Germania."

Lin shook her head. "Don't worry about it."

Karl said goodnight, and thanked Mary also, then he tucked Lin's arm through his own, and they made their down the steps to the street, pausing to raise a hand in farewell to Mary, before they set off towards the hotel.

# # # # 

"What do you think of Carvill's plan?" she asked as they walked.

"I like the idea of going after Hiedler," he said. "Maybe if we can take him out the ruling elite will collapse, bringing the war to an end sooner rather than later."

"Maybe," Lin said slowly. "Although I suspect that the remaining members of the ruling party would manage without him – they're certainly nasty enough. Himel would probably jump at the chance to take over as it'd suit his power-mad ego right down to the ground."

She felt Karl's surprise at her words and looked up at him. "You sound as if you think Carvill's idea is a bad one, yet I thought you wanted to take the Fuehrer down?" he said.

"Oh I do – I'd like to kill him with my bare hands for what he's done to the Adepts, and others. I'm just not convinced that taking him down on his own is sufficient to stop the Party. I think it would be better to take out the lot of them if we can." 

"Does that mean you're going to turn down Carvill's proposal?"

"Oh no, not at all. But it does mean that if I see the opportunity to take out everyone at once, I will do my best to take it."

He nodded. "So we're going to tell Carvill that we're in?"

"Yes. We'll let him know tomorrow." They made their way into the hotel and collected their room key from reception. "What did you think of Mary Lenox?"

Karl gave a shrug as they stepped into the lift. "She seems pleasant enough. I think she's got a mild case of hero-worship where you're concerned."

Lin laughed. "I don't think so."

"I do. You didn't see her face when Carvill proposed the three of us going into Germania together – she looked like a child who had got everything she wanted for Yule."

Lin frowned as they stepped out of the lift and made their way to their room. She hadn't sensed anything like that from Mary, but she'd be the first to admit that most of her attention had been on Carvill, and the remainder on Karl, gauging his reaction to Carvill's proposal. "You may be right," she conceded. "But if so, she'll soon get over it." 

"Maybe," he said, "but I don't think you've any idea what kind of an impact you make on people. And I imagine that impact increases exponentially if you're busy saving someone's life." He unlocked the door to their room, then ushered her inside. 

Lin shook her head slightly, but didn't argue with him. She set her shoulder bag down on a chair, stepped out of her shoes, then allowed Karl to help her out of her coat. He slipped his arms around her, embracing her from behind and nuzzled the side of her neck. 

"You will be careful, won't you, when we get back to Germania?" His kissed her cheek, then turned her around in his arms. "I don't want to lose you."

"Well that goes double for you, mister," she told him, pressing herself against his well-muscled frame. "You're the one who's going to be the least experienced as an agent once we get there."

"I'm relying on you to ensure I'm up to scratch before we arrive," he told her, then lowered his head to kiss her deeply.

She moaned softly into his mouth and felt him guiding her towards the bed, then laughed as he tumbled her onto it. One of the many things she loved about Karl was his playfulness when they were in bed: she appreciated a lover who didn't take the business of love-making too seriously, and while he was always very attentive, taking his time about pleasuring her, he wasn't afraid to laugh with her as well.

# # # # 

Two days later Lin, Karl, and Mary were on a train to Surry to begin their training. Lin sensed that both of her companions were nervous, Karl especially since he didn't really know what to expect in the weeks ahead. Lin felt more curiosity than nerves about her own preparation for their mission: Carvill hadn't been any more forthcoming about what his two colleagues, Sophy Berne and Quinn Hanigan, were going to teach her. Lin did feel a little nervous about the prospect of their parachute training, but she told herself she'd worry about it nearer the time. 

Arriving at Reedhill station, the trio were met by a young woman with a brisk, cheerful manner, who greeted them courteously, and introduced herself as Elizabeth. She led them out from the station to a waiting car.

"The Director has put the three of you in Wasp Greene house, which is on the edge of the Harewood estate, and Harewood House is where you'll be doing your various courses."

"What about the parachute training?" asked Mary.

"We do that on the estate as well," Elizabeth said. "There's enough land there for you to complete your practice jumps, and we've a small landing field as well as two Spitfires."

"Are there going to be many others there?" Karl asked.

"We've usually got a dozen trainees in residence at any one time, although we expect those numbers to increase once the Angiloi war effort really gets going. We're mostly training up agents to go into Gaul to help the resistance fighters there, but we'll also be sending agents behind enemy lines to facilitate escapes."

Lin felt Karl squeeze her hand as it rested between them on the back seat of the car. Mary was sitting in the front passenger seat and she half twisted around to speak to Lin.

"Do you think we'd be able to penetrate the labour and extermination camps?"

"I don't know," Lin said. "I suppose if we found Adepts willing to try, we might."

She nodded then turned back to face the road, and Elizabeth began to tell them what their training schedule would be: during the mornings Lin would be working with Sophy Berne and Quinn Hanigan, while Karl completed his crash course in being an intelligence agent, and Mary would be completing some advanced training in pyrokinesis. In the afternoons they would be doing exercises of various kinds that were designed to teach them how to work as a unit since they would each be relying on the other two for support once they were dropped into Germania.

"What kind of exercises?" asked Karl curiously. 

"Trust exercises, communications, and field exercises in team work. It's hoped those will help you assimilate your studies more quickly," Elizabeth told him. "There will also be sessions for you and Mary to work together using your teleportation and her pyrokinetic skills."

Lin felt a ripple of unease as she sensed Mary's feeling of delight at the prospect of working closely with Karl, and resolved to have a quiet word with the young woman to ensure that Mary knew that she and Karl were a couple.

# # # #

Elizabeth dropped them off at Wasp Greene house, so that they could unpack, pointed out the route over to Harewood House, and told them that lunch would be in an hour. "After lunch you'll meet the Director, and be introduced to your various instructors."

"Thank you." Lin gave her a nod, then hefted her bags and led the way inside.

The house was a sprawling two storey building that featured a lot of undressed stone walls and wooden floors, and Lin couldn't help wondering how warm they were going to be. While the winter temperatures here in Angiloi didn't seem to be as cold as back home in Germania, they still weren't tropically warm.

The trio made their way upstairs, Lin leading the way, and Mary bringing up the rear, where they found four bedrooms. Lin immediately selected what was obviously the master bedroom, which had a view out across open fields, with a large area of woodland over to the right, and blue hills in the distance, and Karl followed her into the room. Lin sensed Mary's disappointment at the realisation that they were intending to sleep together, and she wondered if Mary had hoped to seduce him into her bed. She found herself hoping that she wasn't going to regret saving Mary's life back in Germania.

Lin began unpacking her bags, and Karl did the same; she sensed his contentment at being with her, and when he'd finished, she moved over to wrap her arms around him. He chuckled softly as he embraced her in return.

"What was that for?"

"Nothing," she said. "I just felt like giving you a cuddle. That's all right, isn't it?"

"Of course." He ducked his head and gave her a lengthy kiss, his hands sliding down to cup her arse as he pressed her body more firmly against his.

"I don't think we've got time for that," she said apologetically.

"No, probably not," he agreed, his tone regretful.

"I should warn you that Mary's got her eye on you."

"Has she indeed? Well, she's going to find herself sorely disappointed. You're the only woman for me, Lin Kluge."

He began kissing her again before she could respond, and she felt herself practically melting in his embrace.

A stifled exclamation from across the room made them look up to see Mary, looking flushed, turn away from the doorway and disappear in the direction of the stairs. 

"Perhaps we should shut the door next time," Lin suggested ruefully.

"I don't mind that she saw us," Karl said. "It ought to reinforce the message that any funny business on her part won't be acceptable." 

"So you're not attracted to her?"

His eyes widened, then he shook his head. "Honestly, Lin, no, I'm not. She is an attractive woman – anyone can see that, but I am not attracted to her. She doesn't stir my lust like you do. She doesn't make me want to tumble her onto the bed and have my wicked way with her, as you do."

Lin giggled at the images in his head, then gave him a quick kiss. "Later, mister."

"Definitely," he agreed. "Shall we go and have a look over the rest of the house before we head over to Harewood House?"

She nodded. "Good idea."

# # # #

They walked over to Harewood House together, but Lin could sense that Mary was still upset about catching her and Karl kissing. She didn't say anything, however, feeling that discretion was the better part of valour in this instance; she just hoped that Mary would get over her disappointment sufficiently to be able to work with herself and Karl – after all, it wasn't as if Mary hadn't had hints already that she and Karl were a couple.

They were met at the door by Elizabeth, who led the way into a wide lobby, its ceiling some three stories above their heads. At the far end of the lobby a double staircase swept upwards to landings on the right and left of the entrance hall, but Elizabeth led them over to a door on the right, which revealed a large dining room holding a number of small round tables, rather than one long rectangular one.

The room was currently empty and Lin was about to ask where everyone else was eating when a gong sounded out in the entrance hall.

"Why don't you grab a seat?" suggested Elizabeth.

"Does it matter where we sit?" asked Mary.

"Not at all." 

Lin headed towards a table by the window, and the others followed her. They had scarcely seated themselves when people began to come in, in ones or twos. One man immediately headed towards them, and Lin registered a receding hairline to the left and right of his forehead; a stern expression in grey eyes around which was a fine network of lines; and full, rather sensual lips. He was tall and lean, and moved with a swift grace that made her think of a dancer or a fencer.

"Good afternoon. I am the Director, Robert Lovell." 

He held out his hand to Lin, who shook it and introduced herself, as did Karl and Mary.

"I'll leave you to have your lunch in peace," he told them. "I hope you find your stay here to be useful and productive."

"Thank you." Lin watched him go, then turned her attention back to the man and woman who had been waiting nearby. 

"I'm Quinn Hanigan, and this is Sophy Berne," the man said, indicating the woman beside him. 

Lin, Karl, and Mary introduced themselves again, then the pair seated themselves at the window table. Lin was intrigued to note that the minds of both telepaths were virtually closed to her, which was unusual in her experience.

Sophy was in her fifties, with brown hair and grey eyes; she wore a tailored jacket and skirt, and Lin couldn't help noticing that her clothing, while looking formal, did nothing to hide her curvy figure. Her demeanour was friendly, and Lin immediately found herself warming to the older woman. 

Hanigan's manner was a good deal gruffer, and his expression was even more stern than Lovell's had been. He was six foot tall, which meant he towered over Lin even more than Karl; he had brown hair and eyes, and a deep, rich voice that she was sure many people would find captivating were he speaking kindly. 

Conversation around the table was courteous, but Lin sensed that both Karl and Mary were somewhat intimidated by her new instructors. Not that she blamed them since she felt a bit intimidated herself; she realised that she had always taken for granted her ability to read others' emotions, and it was disconcerting that this pair were so closed to her – she felt as if she had suddenly gone deaf, and it abruptly occurred to her that this was how everyone else felt all the time. It was an odd moment of revelation.

After lunch, Elizabeth appeared again and took them on a tour of Harewood House, showing them the library, the laboratories, the gymnasium, the shooting range (in the basement), the classrooms (which looked more like sitting rooms to Lin's eyes), as well as the kitchen, and the bedrooms, although they did not enter the latter. Then she took them for a walk over the grounds in the immediate vicinity, explaining that the estate actually spread over a considerable amount of land, more than they could cover in the time left until dinner.

"Are we expected to eat all our meals here?" Karl asked as Elizabeth led them back indoors.

"No. The kitchens have supplies available so if you wish to eat at Wasp Greene, you may do so. We would ask you to dine in Harewood House at least once a week, however."

"Understood," Lin said. 

# # # #

After dinner, Mary was invited to join two other agents who were also skilled in telekinesis for a drink in a nearby pub, and she went off cheerfully. Lin and Karl, however, visited the kitchen for breakfast and dinner supplies for a few days, reasoning that it would probably be more practical to have lunch at Harewood House itself. Karl carried the foodstuff back to Wasp Greene in a cardboard box, and after unpacking it, they settled down in the sitting room to listen to some music.

"You were very pensive at lunchtime," Karl observed as he slipped his arm around her and snuggled her body in close to his own.

"It was Sophy and Quinn," she explained. "They're both telepaths and telempaths like me, but I couldn't sense anything from them. Their minds were completely shielded and closed to me – it made me feel as if I'd gone deaf, or something, because I'm so used to being able to sense others' emotions. Then it suddenly occurred to me that this is how you and everyone else who's not an Adept in those skills feels. It was very disconcerting."

"I'm sure it must have been."

"Does it bother you?" He quirked an eyebrow at her, so she elaborated. "Knowing that I can read your emotions?"

He shook his head. "No, because I know that it means you'll always trust me to tell you the truth in any given situation, since there's no point in me lying to you when you'd be able to sense it." He kissed her hair. "It also makes it easier to be in a relationship with you, because I know you'll never doubt me when I tell you that I love you, or that you mean the world to me."

"Karl." She breathed his name, then pushed herself up so that she could kiss him, their lips meeting in a tender kiss that gradually grew more passionate.

He slipped both arms around her, then angled himself backwards to lie on the wide sofa, bringing her body down atop his. She moaned softly and wriggled against him, which elicited a gasp in response, then she felt him shifting his right arm so that he could slip his hand between their bodies, and then it was Lin's turn to gasp as he began to touch her intimately.

She found herself hoping that Mary wouldn't be back any time soon – she couldn't help feeling that having the other woman walk in while she and Karl were in flagrante would not improve Mary's jealousy.

# # # #

The following morning, after breakfast at eight o'clock, the trio walked from Wasp Greene to Harewood House, and Elizabeth took them upstairs to their designated classrooms. Mary was with the other Adepts who were telekinetically skilled, but Karl and Lin were each having solo sessions.

Lin went through the open door of her classroom, where Sophy Berne and Quinn Hanigan awaited her, then found herself turning to close the door behind her before standing with her back to the door. 

She looked over at the pair sitting either side of the fireplace, then asked abruptly, "What did you do?"

"I compelled you to close the door and stand by it," Hanigan answered.

"Why? 

"To show you what can be done if you hone your Adept skills well while you are here," Berne said. 

"We will teach you how to compel others to do your bidding, and also how to shield your mind more fully. For an experienced field agent, your thoughts and emotions are far too easily accessed." Hanigan beckoned, and Lin pushed away from the door and moved across the room to take a seat beside Berne.

"And don't say to yourself, 'I'll know when I meet a telepath or telempath'," Berne added. "Because if they're shielding their minds properly, then you won't even know what kind of Adept they are. And if you're open to them as they are closed to you, and they've had the sort of training we're going to give you, then you'll be in danger."

"I understand." Lin felt a shiver travel up her spine at the thought of being vulnerable to some of the telepaths she knew who worked for the Germani State Security Agency – people with whom she'd previously worked, whom she knew to be utterly ruthless.

"I see that you do," Hanigan said. "I should warn you that you may well end up suffering from headaches for the next few days while we're teaching you."

Lin nodded, and Berne leaned forward as she spoke, "We're going to begin by teaching you how to compel others, then we'll move on to teaching you how to better shield your mind, then you must master how to compel others while still shielding your own mind – which will require considerably more focus and control."

"I'm ready." Lin sensed her teachers' minds become open to her and felt herself relaxing slightly now that she could sense them, although she noted that they were both so intent on what they wanted to teach her that their thoughts were focused, and their emotions were less revealing than another person's would be.

The two of them took it in turns to be the one she had to compel, and the one who critiqued her technique. She found it harder to compel Berne than Hanigan, which surprised her as she'd expected him to be mentally stronger. However, by the time they broke for lunch, Lin had succeeded in compelling Berne to go and open the window, while Hanigan had been compelled to do a handstand.

As she'd been warned, Lin found she did have a headache, and she felt rather drained, too. 

Berne passed her a glass of water and two white tablets. "Take these, and have something to eat, then go and lie down," she said.

"What about my afternoon exercises?" Lin asked, accepting the glass and the tablets, and swallowing them down.

Quinn shook his head. "You'll be excused those for this week at least."

She nodded, then wished she hadn't. Pushing herself to her feet, she made her way to the door just as the gong rang for lunch. Even though she was some distance away, the sound still reverberated unpleasantly through her skull, and she made her way downstairs carefully, keeping hold of the handrail. 

She sensed Karl before he caught up with her at the bottom of the stairs, and when she glanced up at him, she saw he was looking concerned.

"Are you all right?" 

"Headache," she answered tersely.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

"No. I've just taken some painkillers. I need to lie down."

"Let me walk you back to Wasp Greene."

She was about to shake her head when she realised that it would be a bad idea. She also decided that it would be quite a good idea for Karl to go with her as she felt quite dizzy. "Thank you."

She was hardly aware of the walk back from Harewood House, and she was grateful that Karl didn't speak to her; she could sense his concern, and even more strongly his love for her, and she tried to absorb as much of that as she could to counteract the sick feeling the headache was giving her.

They reached the house, and then she felt herself being lifted up; Karl had picked her up, she realised, and was carrying her upstairs to their room.

He lowered her onto the bed, took off her shoes, then moved away and she heard him closing the curtains. She opened her eyes properly once the daylight was shut out, and he came to sit on the side of the bed. 

"Do you want me to stay?" he asked, and she could tell he was quite worried about her.

She reached up to cup his cheek. "No, love. Go and have some lunch. I'll probably be feeling a lot better in an hour or so."

He placed his hand over hers, then turned his head to kiss her palm. "All right. I'll come back and check on you before I go to my afternoon classes."

"How did it go this morning?" she asked. "I forgot to ask, sorry."

"Don't be silly," he said gently. "You're feeling unwell. It went well, I think – my instructor said I had a quick mind, which he thought boded well for me mastering everything."

"Good. I'm glad."

He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Get some sleep, if you can."

"I will."

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to relax as Karl made his way out of the room.

# # # # 

She wasn't sure how long she'd slept for when she woke to the sound of an argument being conducted in fierce undertones out on the landing.

"What made you think I'd be remotely interested in you in that way?" demanded Karl, and Lin could sense that he was barely controlling his anger.

"You can't tell me that you don't think I'm attractive," answered Mary. "And you're a man – "

Whatever else she'd been about to say was cut off by Karl's growl of suppressed fury, followed by a thump, which Lin surmised was him hitting the wall, probably so that he wouldn't hit Mary. 

"Yes, you are an attractive woman, and yes, I am, as you have so accurately observed, a man. But that doesn't mean I'm going to cheat on Lin for the sake of a quick fling with you. Lin and I have been through a lot together in the last two months, and she means a good deal to me, more than any other woman ever has. In fact, I want to spend the rest of my life with her." His voice lowered further, but Lin could still hear him despite the closed bedroom door. "Find some other man to fool around with, Mary Lenox, because if you don't, you're going to find yourself in a world of misery. I can't imagine what Lin would do to you, if she found out that you were making moves on me."

Lin opened the bedroom door, and they both jumped, startled by her sudden appearance. "Put it this way," she said in as casual a tone as she could muster, "Mary might well wish I'd left her with my colleagues back in Germania."

The other woman's eyes widened in shock and she mumbled something incoherent before hurrying along the landing and down the stairs.

"Are you all right?" Karl asked anxiously, coming to stand in front of her, but hesitating to touch her. 

She could sense how much he wanted to hold her, and how upset he was that she'd overheard any part of their conversation, and she stepped forward to wrap her arms around him. "A good deal better, thank you," she told him. "I wouldn't have minded a bit more sleep, though."

"I'm sorry about that," he said quickly. "She insisted on coming back with me after lunch, but I had no idea she was going to try – "

"It's all right, Karl." She cut him off, pushing up onto tiptoes to kiss him firmly on the mouth. "Come to bed – unless you have to be somewhere else?"

He chuckled, then scooped her up into his arms. "Not for another hour," he told her.

"Good." She sensed his surge of desire, and felt her own arousal building in response.

He lowered her back down onto their bed, then went to close the door. "I didn't expect Mary to disappear so quickly," he observed as he kicked off his shoes, then joined her on the bed.

"No, well, I might have something to do with that," she admitted.

"You mean something other than the death glare that you gave her?" he asked, smirking.

She felt heat in her cheeks and nodded. "Yes. My instructors are teaching me how to 'compel' people – that is, to get inside their heads and make them do something, even if it's not something they want to do." She looked up at him, sensing the sudden concern he felt, but was trying to mask. She reached up and cupped his cheek. "I would never, ever, use that on you, I promise."

He nodded, and she knew that he understood there was no point in denying that he'd felt such a worry when she could read his emotions. "How does it work?" 

"Well, telepathically," she said. "The person doing the compelling has to be strong willed, as well as strongly gifted as an Adept. It also helps if the person you're compelling doesn't know that you can do it."

"I see." He leaned down to kiss her languidly, and she thought no more about Mary or her lessons, luxuriating, instead, in the sensation of his soft lips on hers, and his tongue teasing hers. 

# # # #

By the start of their second week at Harewood House, Lin was able to compel Berne and Hanigan to do anything she chose, and she'd learnt how to shield her own mind so that they found it increasingly hard to compel her to do anything. 

She, Karl, and Mary were about to begin their joint exercises during the afternoons. Lin had seen little of Mary since that afternoon when she had woken to find Karl arguing with the other woman outside her door; Mary had been eating both lunch and dinner over at Harewood House, and had begun having her breakfast at Wasp Green before Lin and Karl were awake.

On the Sunday night before their joint exercises began, however, Lin made a point of lying in wait for Mary in order to be able to talk to her.

The other woman came into her room and Lin switched on the bedside light before Mary could find the switch for the master light.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, and Lin sensed the rush of fear that flooded the other woman's mind.

"I'm not here to hurt you," Lin told her. "We need to talk." She got up from her seat on the bed, and moved over to lean against the mantle above the fireplace. "We start doing our team exercises tomorrow, and it's in all of our best interests to ensure that we're able to work together, otherwise our mission to Germania will get scrapped. And I, personally, am not about to let a petty dispute get in the way of our carrying out that mission."

She looked over at Mary, noting that her sense of fear had receded somewhat at Lin's calm manner. 

"Let me be perfectly clear, however. If you ever make a move on Karl again, I shall make you regret that I got you out of Germania when my colleagues held you prisoner. Because what they were doing to you would be as nothing compared to what I will do to you."

"Are you threatening me?" Mary asked, standing up straighter.

"Of course I am," Lin said, her tone still pleasant. "I love Karl, and he means the world to me. So keep your hands to yourself, or else."

Mary glared. "Do you think your threats will persuade me to work with you?"

"Well, if they don't, perhaps I'll just compel you to do so." Lin stared at the other woman, and watched as she crossed to the wall and did a handstand, then came back to her feet and began undressing herself. She sensed Mary's horror and the effort she was making to resist, but she didn't let her hold on the other woman's mind fall away until Mary was down to her underwear.

"Now, are you going to work nicely with me, and with Karl, or shall I go to the Director and ask him to find someone else for us to work with for the mission to Germania?"

"I'll work with you," Mary answered, her tone sullen, and her cheeks aflame.

"Good." Lin turned around and strolled out. She was aware of Mary's emotions: a mixture of shame that she'd been compelled against her will, anger that Lin had threatened her, and embarrassment that she'd come on too strongly to Karl. Lin wasn't proud of what she'd just done, but she refused to consider apologising – the mission to Germania mattered more than anything except Karl, and she would even consider sacrificing her relationship with him, if it was necessary to ensure the success of their mission. She wanted Hiedler and his ruling Party destroyed outright, and that was all that mattered for now.

# # # #

The next seven weeks passed swiftly. Lin's training moved on to using her telepathic skills to heighten or suppress someone else's emotions, and that took her longer to master without giving herself headaches. Afternoons were spent in completing field exercises with Karl and Mary; the latter gradually grew less sullen with Lin, although she was never again as friendly as they'd been on the first evening they'd had dinner with her brother. Lin didn't really care – she wasn't after Mary's friendship, only her cooperation to ensure the success of their mission – and she was relieved that Mary's incipient hero worship had also died since she considered hero worship to be far from beneficial to either the worshipper or the one worshipped.

By the time the third month of their training began, they were working seamlessly as a unit, and earned the praise of all their field instructors. They entered the final phase of their training in good spirits, despite the nervousness they all felt at the prospect of parachute training.

The training took place on the far side of the Harewood estate: a barn had been rigged out with all the necessary equipment, including ropes and an old fuselage, needed to train the agents to make a coordinated exit from an aeroplane, and to withstand the impact of landing at speed and from a considerable height. 

They were first taught how to fall safely without breaking their legs, swinging down from the ropes that dangled from the ceiling and falling onto the crash mats below. Once the instructor, David Henderson, was satisfied that they'd mastered that, he taught them how to exit the aircraft fuselage.

"You have to sit on the edge of the trap," he told Lin and the others. "Your legs dangle through the trap so you'll have to use your hands to brace yourself against the force of the air rushing against you as the plane is moving. So you place your hands flat, like so, and hold the edge of the trap to steady your body." He demonstrated as they stood around him inside the fuselage. 

"You must remember that the plane will be at a low altitude, around one thousand, six hundred and fifty feet at the most, which means that the plane will wobble and not be stable, which is why it's better to sit down for your exit than stand – there's less chance of you falling over because your centre of gravity is lower, and your arse is more stable than your feet."

This evoked some nervous laughter from the agents, before he continued. "Your dispatcher will tell you when to jump, and you must not hesitate for even a second to drop through that hatch, otherwise you run the risk of the pilot overshooting your dropping ground, which will mean your reception committee won't be on hand to safely take you away from the dropping ground."

He got to his feet, then stepped back. "Right, I want you to practise dropping through this hatch onto the mats below. We will not be making practice jumps from an actual aircraft until I'm satisfied you can exit the fuselage correctly and safely. Line up, ladies first to encourage the men."

There was more laughter, then they lined up – Lin found herself at the front of the line, mainly because everyone else kept shuffling towards the back, so she gave a resigned shrug, then positioned herself on the edge of the trap. 

"All right. Go, go, go!" The last word was yelled practically in her ear as Lin launched herself out of the trap, and landed on the crash mat several feet below, her knees bent and her body tucked in tight. She quickly got herself out of the way as another agent was told to "Go, go, go!".

A few days later, the agents were taken up in an aeroplane to make their first jump from a moving aircraft. Lin felt surprisingly calm, but she could sense most of the others felt a degree of nervousness, although Karl seemed nearly as relaxed as she was.

They did three practice jumps by daylight, then they were required to do a night time jump, and even Lin felt a degree of anxiety at the prospect, but to her relief the jump went well for her, Karl, and Mary. One man landed imperfectly and sprained his ankle so badly that he had to be carried off the airfield and driven back to Harewood House to the infirmary.

That evening they all went to the local pub where they got very merry in celebration of earning their paratroopers' wings – a small lapel pin displaying a pair of wings with a hot air balloon in the centre.

The next day, despite the aching heads, and in some cases, outright hangovers, the agents assembled after breakfast to receive their final briefings for their upcoming missions.

Lin was pleased that their training was complete and couldn't wait to hear how soon they would be dispatched to Germania – the sooner they left, the sooner this war would be over, and then she and Karl could get married and settle down. It was a happier prospect than she'd had for the last few months.

**Author's Note:**

> Cast: 
> 
> Judi Dench - Lin Kluge  
> Daniel Craig - Karl Adler  
> Rory Kinnear – William Carvill – Head of Military Intelligence, Angiloi  
> Abbie Abbington - Mary Lenox - sister of William Carvill, MIA Agent  
> Phyllis Logan – Sophy Berne – Empath & Telepath   
> Roger Allam – Quinn Hanigan – Empath & Telepath  
> Patrick Malahide - Robert Lovell - Director of Harewood House MIA training school


End file.
